I really feel I need to start another campaign, following on from Rainbow for Mister Gove and the Letter for Mr Laws campaigns. It’s like an itch that I have to scratch and, I’m feeling really itchy right now. I also wanted to offer a focus for people after speaking at the fantastic Royal Opera House Bridge Conference “Ahead for Culture” and after hearing Darren Henley’s (CEO Arts Council England) maiden speech recently.
I want to get as many people involved as I possibly can, and I firmly believe that the social media and Internet platforms can help to do this. I need you to join me in a collective voice that protests strongly about the marginalisation of the Arts in education, which result from government educational policies.

My thanks go to everyone who supports the APPG, who sent information to help brief the speakers, who spoke in the debate, who tweeted and re-tweeted the quotes and the links (thank you Sir Ken Robinson, you really did help to spread the word). My biggest thanks go to the teachers in my life who opened my eyes to what art can do for a person, and who gave me my voice.

But you see, I don’t really think we need to justify the arts in schools- because I talk to kids in schools and I do this everywhere and every week, I talk to kids and I listen to them. Most of them like to sing and dance and move and wriggle and create and act out stories, to make music, to draw and paint and fold and crease and twist and sew and thread and touch and feel and weave and plait and mould and form and invent and create an outcome which they never knew existed and which might not exist again. Creativity, originality…. and that’s just magic.

This week we have also finalised the agenda for the October 15th All Party Parliamentary Group on Art, Craft, Design education. Dan Jarvis, Shadow Minister for Culture will be coming to explain the Labour Party six points for Culture proposal. Read on to see more of the content we plan for this.

My goodness but what a wonderful few days of educational explosion on the topic of Mr Gove’s leaked plans for the future of our examination system! Wonderful because it got everyone talking and I have not met anyone who does not have an “opinion” on this. But, it still worries me that the Secretary of State for Education clearly believes that he can solve all the “ills” in education on a whim and an idea written on the back of an envelope. He can’t. He simply doesn’t know what he is talking about. The people to consult and talk to are the ones who are working in education, who understand the nature of learning and the many nuances of education.

But most of all, do you know what art does? It protects our own psyche, it makes us individual, it gives life multiple meanings, it gives great pleasure, it allows the “f” word to stay in education (F-U-N)- we simply don’t hear that word enough anymore. Shout it out please because our esteemed minister seems to have forgotten that it exists. His curriculum models avoid the “F” word and the “C” word (that’s creativity folks).

When everyone finally left, there was such a buzz of appreciation. This is a great group of practitioners who are now a fully developed and self generating community of practice with genuine interest and respect for each other and a love of the craft of teaching. I have no doubt that the lively on line debates will continue on the Facebook page, there is so much more to come this year everyone, enjoy it all.

Come and listen to teachers, artists, lecturers, art students, advisers, school leaders, exam board reps, subject association reps, MPs and whoever else would like to celebrate the power of the arts in our schools and in lives.

Do we sit back and allow something that we believe in, and which we know works, be trampled on by new and untested initiatives (which hark to the past and not the future), or, do we stand up for what we believe in and create a strong message that resonates with people and makes them think and then makes them allies?

It was an audience from all over the UK and a great gathering of creative minds. So, I was able to benefit from the useful contributions from other presenters and enjoyed the practical art session we did after lunch as well.

Last week was a mix of pleasure and sadness. Sadness was recognition that not all things are going well. I heard the news that Sheffield Arts in Education have been dissolved by the Council (the week that Sheffield Museums also lost it’s ACE funding) and so my lovely Sheffield Art Teacher network will no longer be funded. If […]

I saw a painting,by Pieter Bruegel the elder,when I was a teenager, “Massacre of the Innocents”, and was intrigued by the whole tale of how the painting shows the obliteration of a Dutch village by forces sent and controlled by King Philip II of Spain. All of the village would have been declared heretics and automatically sentenced to death. It’s […]

It has been an inspiring week. Most of it spent with school middle leaders, aspiring headteachers and senior leadership members. All of them clearly focussed on what is best for their children in their schools, despite all that the Coalition “throws” at us. It has been like a cleansing breath of fresh air, blowing through a muddled landscape of catastrophic […]

and I did fail it…..like so many others- if you apply the judgement retrospectively- as was done last week. In some ways, it’s worse than that. One size fits all simply doesn’t work….are you listening Michael Gove ? I went to an academic school, I failed to make the grade. I could not “perform” in exams, or under pressure, despite […]

I ran school inset in a school in Enfield today and it was well worth the journey to help art teachers develop the professional dialogue which is so essential to being reflective practitioners. On the train home (which broke down of course) I found that one of my external hard drives wasn’t working with all the data on it for […]

The best type of CPD you can have is a mix of work, social interaction and fun. Just back from an art teachers session at the Culture Cafe in Newcastle, where Kamil always makes us a huge buffet breakfast, wonderful food (squeaky cheese !), scintillating conversation and serious discussion too. So, I have to point you to this link […]